Merci Julia, Part 2

More recipes the great chefs created for the event

“Pull up a chair. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.”

I wrote that at the end of a rant about a New York shop that was selling “kid food.” It struck me then — as it does now — that it is a very bad idea to tell children that they won’t like the food the rest of us are eating. But I had no idea that the phrase would be so endlessly repeated.

It’s been used on birthday cards. I once found it painted on a wall in a restaurant in New Zealand. And now it’s stamped on a spoon.

How could I resist this? And Then Again seeks out vintage serving pieces — pie servers, spoons, knives and the like — and stamps them with various sayings. I especially like the quote from Julia on the pretty pie server below. There are a lot of styles and sayings to choose from, and they make lovely gifts.

As you can see from the plate above, no expense was spared for the Merci Julia event. I treasure this commemorative plate.

To round out yesterday’s recipes from the grand tasting, here are a few that were contributed by famous New York chefs. Note how much you can learn about the chefs merely from the way the recipes are written. And the typography; the last three restaurants are all named for the chef/owner, but just look at the different ways they display their names.

The late Gray Kunz, the brilliant chef at Lespinasse who was raised in Singapore was famous for incorporating arcane Asian ingredients into his cooking. (Lespinasse was the first place I ever tasted kokum.) Note the use of taro root — and the meticulous way the recipe is written.

I’m fascinated by the fact that Daniel Boulud, who had been the chef at Le Cirque, was already citing Restaurant Daniel as his home base. The restaurant would not open for a couple more months. Also telling: this recipe is extremely precise and has been thoughtfully written for home cooks (few other chefs bothered to do this).

I don’t think you need me to interpret this recipe. Just by reading it you can tell that David Bouley is in a class by himself. I wonder if any home cook ever used this recipe? (The little canapes were delicious.)

During the controversy over the paucity of women chefs at the event, the organizers were asked why Alice Waters was not included. The answer? “Alice Waters is not a French chef.” Neither, of course, is Julian Serrano, a wonderful Spanish-born chef who took the reins at Masa’s after the restaurant’s founder and namesake, the Japanese Masataka Koboyashi, was murdered.

In the first edition of La Briffe I shared the article I wrote about the dinner that launched The American Institute of Wine and Food. I should have posted the menu. Mea Culpa. I herewith remedy that omission.